In the current video acquisition and linear satellite delivery design, video feeds are collected from various local collection facilities (“LCFs”) all over the country, aggregated over a core network, and then uplinked to satellites via one of many remote uplink facilities (“RUFs”). Each RUF can include equipment for processing the video feeds and uplinking the video feeds to one or more satellites.
A RUF can be associated with a diverse uplink facility (“DUF”) that is used as a backup uplink to the satellite(s) in response to inclement weather or another adverse event that blocks the RUF from uplinking video feeds to the satellite(s). Each DUF is typically located about 20 to 50 miles from its associated RUF. Signals automatically switch to the DUF during an adverse event and switch back to the RUF when the adverse event ends. This design has a major limitation. In particular, video feeds are assembled by video processing equipment at the RUF; therefore if the RUF is downed, the DUF does not have access to any video data to uplink to the satellite(s). Moreover, since the DUFs depend on the RUFs for network connectivity to the core network, if a RUF goes down, the DUF cannot take over uplink transmission from the RUF.